Foil perforation particulate impact records on LDEF MAP AO023: Incident mass distributions

An array of multiple foils varying from 1.5 to 3.0 microns exposed on Long Duration Exposure Facility's (LEDF's) geocentrically stabilized exposure platform provides perforation distributions which relate to particulate flux mass distributions and impact velocity in LDEF's orbital reference frame. The application of physical modeling enables a preliminary separation into orbital and interplanetary components, both of which have differing velocities and hence penetration effectiveness. Thin foil hypervelocity calibration data and parametric penetration formulae developed to relate target hole diameter to projectile dimensions are critically examined and a new formula offered for the ballistic limit situation. Incorporating projectile density, target density, and target strength and dimensional scaling from submicron particulates to centimeter scale data, it contrast very significantly with previous formulae in the interpretation of space impact data. Perforation flux distributions for the leading, trailing, and space pointing faces and associated mass distributions for the two populations are presented.